The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ivy Geranium plant botanically known as Pelargonium peltatum and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Tosforice’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Weener-Halte, Germany during August 2007. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Ivy Geranium cultivars that flower uniformly and have dark green-colored foliage, and a compact, mounded-spreading growth habit.
The new Ivy Geranium cultivar ‘Tosforice’ was produced by grafting the Pelargonium peltatum plant ‘Mexikanerin’, not patented, which contains a unique viroid that causes dichroism, with the proprietary Pelargonium peltatum breeding selection coded N 540, not patented. ‘Mexikanerin’ was the rootstock and breeding selection N 540 was the scion. Breeding selection N 540 is characterized by its double-type, bright red flowers, dark green-colored foliage having very dark zonation, moderate growth vigor, and mounded-spreading growth habit. After the grafting method, terminal cuttings were taken and propagated. The viroid of ‘Mexikanerin’ passed to the grafting and yielded a new phenotype of red and white bicolor flowers. There was variation among the plants and selections were made based on flower color. A single plant selection was subsequently chosen for further evaluation and for asexual propagation via vegetative cuttings. While the mechanism of the viroid is not known, the new trait of dichroism is stable and heritable in that it is passed on to future generations through asexual propagation without the rootstock.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since Spring 2008 in Weener-Halte, Germany and Arroyo Grande, Calif. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.